Monday, August 20, 2007

Last weekend was the 2nd annual Pinetop golf trip. There were only 5 of us this year as Rob could not make it and he usually brings a few of the Yuma crew along. Bill already owed me $50 from the PGA championship bet so that was to be the first amount we would bet on the first round of golf at White Mountain Country Club.

Unfortunately, I had a mishap on the first par 5. I was 80 yards short of the green in 3 shots and I skulled my approach over the green, into the woods, and into a muddy drainage ditch. Now if I had been a little more patient and a little less pissed off I would have done the smart thing after seeing my lie and declared it unplayable and replayed my shot from in front of the green. Instead I chose to drop in the woods and hoped to hit it out of the woods off of a hardpan lie to a green that slopes away from me. Needless to say I did not pull off the shot and it hit a tree and went right back into the muddy ditch. I ended up with a 12 which is the highest score I can ever remember taking or writing down on my card.

After I triple bogeyed the next par 5, I asked Bill for a press on the $50 bet. I made sure to tell him it was a press and I wanted to make sure that the first bet was still on even though I was almost hopelessly behind. Then I started to play better. My score was 50 on the front nine and 40 on the back.

Bill started to play horribly and pressed again after he was down a few strokes on the 2nd bet. On 15, a long par 5 I hit a great drive and had a blind 230 yard shot to the green. Bill decided to mouth off and tell Jon, "This is where the tide will turn." Implying that I was going to choke. I stepped up and pured my 5 wood and my shot ended up 15 feet from the pin with a putt for eagle. I hit a bad putt that was 4 feet short, but I made the second one for birdie. Bill missed his birdie putt and I was now only 2 shots behind on my original bet even after taking a 12 and a triple bogey 8 on the two par 5's on the front nine.

We tied the next 2 holes and we came to the last hole which is a par 3. Since Bill was behind on the two additional press bets and stood to lose $100, he made another press for $50. Even though I had played the course a few times before I forgot that the green slopes severely from front to back. Bill remembered this and hit a low punch shot that stopped 25 feet away. I hit a high wedge shot that looked absolutely beautiful in the air. It landed 8 feet from the pin in the middle of the green and proceeded to spin right off the green and settled 3 feet off the edge. So instead of an 8 foot birdie putt, I had a just hope I can two putt, 50 footer. I hit another good putt with good speed except I misread the break and I was left with 5 feet for par. Bill made his easy par. I hit my putt exactly where I wanted and it looked good. Suddenly it stopped breaking into the cup, caught the lip, and spun half way around and out. I hit three good shots in a row on that hole and still ended up with bogey.

So after all the drama, Bill was right back where he started the day, down $50. Saturday morning we had a tee time at Pine Top Lakes, the par 3 course. I did not hit the ball well on the range but I was making every putt I looked at on the putting green. Bill wanted to play for $100 and I quickly agreed. On the very first hole, I sank a 30 footer for birdie and Bill missed a 4 footer for par and I had a 2 stroke lead. Bill never got closer the rest of the round and I shot a 69 which was 6 over par for the day. So now I am up $150.

After his morning thrashing, I half expceted Bill to beg me to drive back to Phoenix with the other 3 guys who were leaving early. We had a tee time at Pine Top Country Club for 1:09. We went back to the cabin and Bill showered off his bad round and was ready to go at it again in the afternoon. This time he hit a lot of chips around the green expecting to up and down me to death in the actual match. Bill was not feeling too confident in his swing so we did not bet the full amount. We capped it at $100.

From the start, we both played the front nine very well. We both scored a 42 and it seemed it should have been lower. Bill continued to play solid, but I took my game up another notch. Bill did make one killer mistake on the 11th hole when he hit his tee shot on the par 3 over the green and across the road which was out of bounds. I made par and he made a 6 for a 3 stroke swing.

Now the only thing that could save him was a lightning delay or my back going out. My back felt pretty good, but the clouds were rolling in. Sure enough on 12, we heard a clap of thunder and the lightning warning siren went off, calling us in to the clubhouse. Luckily it was only a 15 minute delay and I went right back to kicking his ass. I fired a one over par, 36 on the back nine for a 78. Bill shot a respectable 84 but he never had a chance. The final total for the weekend was a record $250 win in golf bets. Money won is at least twice as sweet as money earned!